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Curated playlist

American pop pianists

  • Lady GagaLady Gaga's name may have come from a phone typo. Producer Rob Fusari said autocorrect turned "Radio Ga Ga" into "Lady".
  • Taylor SwiftEvery record label in Nashville turned Taylor Swift away when she was 11. She kept going and began writing songs.
  • Prince (musician)Prince once changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol to protest his record label.
  • Jerry Lee LewisJerry Lee Lewis feared his own hit song was blasphemous.
  • Norah JonesNorah Jones was born Geethali Norah Jones Shankar in Manhattan on the 30th of March 1979. At sixteen, with the consent of both parents, she made the shorter name official. By 2023, records sold under that name had passed 53 million…
  • Fiona AppleOn the 8th of March 2020, Fiona Apple posted a video of herself spelling out a sentence with her fingers: M-Y-R-E-C-O-R-D-I-S-D-O-N-E. Fans had waited years for any sign of that sentence. Apple is an American singer-songwriter, born Fiona…
  • Todd RundgrenTodd Rundgren, born on the 22nd of June 1948, once called one of his own albums "my act of tyranny". He said it brought "a complete loss of about half of my audience". He said the episode became the model for the rest of his life. Rundgren…
  • Billy JoelWilliam Martin Joel, better known as Billy Joel, left Hicksville High School in 1967 without a diploma. He had missed a crucial English exam after playing a late-night gig at a piano bar, where he earned money to help support his mother…
  • Carole KingCarole King wrote or co-wrote 118 songs that reached the Billboard Hot 100 during the second half of the 20th century. Another 61 of her songs reached the UK charts. From 1962 to 2005, no woman had more success as a songwriter on the UK…
  • Charlie PuthCharlie Puth was a sixth-grader when he went door to door selling a Christmas album that he had recorded and produced himself. The album was called Have a Very Charlie Christmas, and it brought in $600. That early venture previews a career…
  • Josh GrobanJosh Groban is an American singer, songwriter and actor, and in 2007 he was charted as the best-selling artist in the United States. That year his records had passed 22.3 million in sales. By 2022 his worldwide total had climbed beyond 25…
  • Billy PrestonBilly Preston got his name on a Beatles single. The 1969 "Get Back" was credited to "The Beatles with Billy Preston."

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